More than a hundred members of the jihadist organization Al Shabaab have been killed in a large military operation that has expelled the organization from the town of Ali Gadud, in the southeast of the country, considered one of the major strongholds of the group in the area.
The operation was announced by the official SONNA news agency just hours after one of the worst jihadist attacks in months on the country’s capital: two car bombs and a shooting attack on the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and the adjacent commercial area that left more than a hundred victims, including women and children, and more than 300 wounded.
According to the Somali Army, its forces have relied on the support of the local population in expelling the jihadists from Masajid Ali Gadud, in the Middle Shabelle region, considered as «a center of extortion located in a strategic point».
«More than 100 terrorists have been killed during this operation,» adds the statement picked up by the agency.
«The National Army and the people are fighting side by side, which is a clear message demonstrating the great failures of the jayirites,» a term used by the Somali authorities to designate Al Shabaab as renegades of the true nature of Islam, «and a sign that the country will soon be rid of them after more than 15 years of oppression,» the note adds.
